U.S. Is Preparing Europe to Use Nuclear Weapons Against Russia — Lavrov

Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Ministry / Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Russia’s foreign minister has warned that the United States is preparing Europe to use tactical nuclear weapons against Russia.

Russia, along with the U.S. and other nuclear powers, has refused to join the world’s first nuclear disarmament deal, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month. Meanwhile, the latest U.S. Nuclear Posture Review has called to develop new types of missiles to counter Russian and Chinese threats.

Speaking at the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Wednesday, Lavrov accusedWashington of storing nonstrategic nuclear arms in Europe and holding “joint nuclear missions” with non-nuclear countries there.

"Everyone understands that by doing this the U.S. military is preparing the military forces of European countries to use nuclear weapons against Russia,” he said in televised remarks.

Meanwhile, Robert Wood, the head of the U.S. disarmament mission in Geneva, accused Russia at the same conference of failing to ensure the Syrian government’s elimination of its chemical weapons, Reuters reported.